


Where We Went Wrong

by Bookwormpride



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: (if thats what you want to call what the other diamonds were to Pink), Bad Parenting, Lots of awkwardness, The Diamonds are Trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 10:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15683373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookwormpride/pseuds/Bookwormpride
Summary: The Diamonds made too many mistakes with Pink Diamond, the biggest of all not letting her know that they loved her. They refuse to make those same mistakes again.





	Where We Went Wrong

Maybe sitting between two Diamonds should have been scarier to Steven, but mostly it was just awkward.

In the days following theirs and the Crystal Gems escape from Homeworld, or rather, from White Diamond, Blue and Yellow had been making an effort to adjust to Earth, coming to the very tentative early-stages of a truce with the Crystal Gems, and finally starting to grasp that Steven was a being separate from Pink Diamond.

Now, as the sun began to set the Diamonds settled in on the sand on either side of Steven; Yellow uncomfortably shifting about as if unused to sitting on the ground, and Blue studying him out of the corners of her eyes. He wondered if she seen any resemblance between him and Pink, if maybe the reason he had never been able to find any similarities between himself and Rose Quartz was that he looked more like her original form.

The conversation was stop-and-start as the Diamonds asked questions he simply didn’t have the answers to, and tried to get to know him but hardly understood anything he spoke of. They were reduced to small talk, which after everything that had happened kind of felt silly and neither of the Diamonds were very good at anyway.

Steven was digging his feet into the sand and using his hands to push more on top just for something to do while the silence stretched on, when Blue took a deep breath as if steeling herself.

Still looking out at the horizon, she asked, her voice quivering with barely contained tears, “Did Pink really think... Did she not know that we loved her?”

Steven chewed on the inside of his cheek and looked down. He thought of Pearls memory, of a dark palanquin and quiet whispers behind the throne, “ _ Blue and Yellow don’t care, they never have _ ,” Rose had said with complete conviction, like it was fact, like she had known it forever and stop being bothered by it long ago.

“I don’t think she did,” Steven admitted.

Blue sobbed, and while Yellows face remained unreadable he didn’t miss how her fist clenched at his words.

“Where did we go wrong?” Blue wondered aloud.

Once again, Steven didn’t have an answer.

* * *

 

Blue was happy for Pink, getting her own colony was a big deal, even if it had been given to her by Yellow rather then discovered by her own gems. It was a start, hopefully the first in many.

But she was getting rather tired of hearing about it constantly.

“And the Peridots said that there’s an area in the eastern hemisphere that will be perfect for gem production,” Pink said excitedly as she followed Blue through the docking bay. Blue  _ mhm _ ed absentmindedly.

“I was working with the Beryls on a new quartz design,” Pink said, swinging her feet restlessly in the chair beside Blue’s as they waited on Yellow to arrive for the meeting. “I’m naming them after this Earth flower, it’s called a Rose,” Blue kept glancing at the door hoping for Yellow to show so they could move on to more pressing topics.

“The Lapis Lazuli’s started redirecting the western ocean, so the Bismuth's can begin work on the Galaxy Warp and then gems can start coming to Earth and, oh, the Sky Spire is almost done and…” Pink told her from the other end of the Diamond line. Blue nodded as Pink went on, while off screen she flipped through files.

She was glad Pink was excited about her colony, but that didn’t mean she had to be too.

“Blue!” Steven called out as she walked past the ships observatory-converted-bedroom on her way to the control bridge.

Blue Diamond paused and leaned in the doorway. “Yes?”

Steven was sitting on the bed they had installed, while the small image cube in front of it emitted flashes of light and voices mingled with music.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“I’m going to check on our progress and reply to a few reports,” Blue answered.

“So… you’re busy?” Steven summarized, sounding disappointed in a way that made Blue regret letting him down.

She looked down the hall towards the control bridge, then back at him. “No...” She said slowly, thinking of the reports piling up and how Yellow would be on her case if she sherked them, but another look at Steven and her mind was made. “No, I’m not.”

Steven beamed. “Do you want to watch Lonely Blade with me?” He asked excitedly.

She didn’t know what Lonely Blade was but she thought it safe to assume it was one of the programs he enjoyed watching. “Sure,” She agreed, entering the room and sitting beside the bed, still towering over him and the human objects in the room.

“I guess we should start with the first Lonely Blade movie,” He said.

An hour later they were well into the movie, in the middle of a scene between Lonely Blade and the sword fighting master. Every so often Steven would pause the video to explain a concept that was foreign to Blue, or to tell her something about the characters or story, his face lit up with enthusiasm.

She didn’t get why he liked it, but if it made Steven happy, it made her happy as well.

* * *

 

Yellow wished Pink wasn’t always so underfoot, both metaphorically and literally.

Whenever she was with Yellow she was loud, demanding, into everything, and just generally obnoxious. She refused to let Yellow work in peace, always pulling her attention away for useless distractions, clinging to her, asking a million questions. It was vexing, and Yellow didn’t have time for it.

“What's that?” Pink asked, sitting on Yellows armrest and watching her work on her screen.

“It’s the spire they’re erecting in Facet L1.” Yellow said, quickly signing her approval on the blueprints and sending them off.

“What does that mean?” Pink asked, reading over Yellows shoulder the document her flight crew had sent about her ships maintenance.

“It means the ship is having it’s engine changed and it’s stabilizers modified.” She answered, a hint of annoyance seeping into her tone.

Pink thought for a moment. “When can I have a ship?”

“When you start having places to go.” Yellow said dully.

“I have places to go!” Pink protested.

“All accessible by warp pad.” Yellow reminded her.

When Yellow picked up the communicator to call White Pink grabbed onto her sleeve. “Can I do it?” She asked hopefully.

Yellow sighed, but handed her the communicator. She turned the sides until the whites lined up, and watched as it rose into the air in front of them, expanding into a display as White answered.

“I’m just calling about-” Yellow started before being cut off by a hand waving in front of her face.

“Hi White!” Pink squealed.

“Pink,” Yellow breathed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Can you go downstairs? I need to finish here.”

After a short argument it was settled that Pink would wait for her in Yellows palanquin downstairs and she left in a huff.

Yellow drooped back in her chair momentarily, before straightening and pulling her screen close. Finally she could get her work done.

The door to the control room opened with a whoosh, letting Yellows Pearl and Steven through. Steven slowly turned in a circle to admire everything in the room with stars in his eyes.

“Do you need anything else, My Diamond?” Pearl asked.

“No, that will be all,” Yellow said briskly.

“Steven?” Pearl asked him.

“No, thank you,” He smiled at her and the Pearl left. He raced up the stairs to Yellows chair. “Hey Yellow!” He called.

“Hello, Steven,” She said, putting her hand down to bring him up. He climbed off onto the armrest. “How was the tour?” She asked. 

“Amazing! Your base is so big!” He said. “It must’ve taken like, a bajillion years to build.”

“I like to keep it up to date, so it  _ is  _ in a state of almost constant construction,” She told him. “If you go to Blues you’ll see a lot more outdated architecture.”

“What’s that?” Steven asked, looking at the screen hovering in front of them.

“It’s the status of the batch of Jades I ordered,” Yellow said. “They’re coming along nicely and will emerge as scheduled.”

“Ohhh,” Steven awed. He eyed the screen, “Peridot told me these don’t have games but… do they?” He asked.

“No, it’s for work and communication.” Yellow answered, then, “What do you mean by games?”

“Like, my phone has these things called apps, I have puzzles and Words With Friends and Angry Birds and Sketchbook, they’re just for fun!” He explained.

Yellow nodded uncertainly, not knowing what most of what he just described was. “No, I don’t think-” She paused, then summoned the screen closer. “Actually...”

She pulled up a page most gems used to draw blueprints or charts, or occasionally scenes from criminal trials, and brought the screen down to Stevens level. “You can draw on this.”

Stevens face lit up as he experimentally touched the screen, drawing a line across the center. “Cool!”

Yellow leaned on her hand, watching him draw smiley faces, stars, and hearts all over the screen. She knew she had work she needed to be doing, but she thought spending time with Steven might just be a little more important

* * *

 

Pink was unusually quiet when she arrived in Blue Diamonds quarters. She sat off to the side, staring out the windows thoughtfully and chewing on her bottom lip.

Blue knew something was bothering her, but she was dealing with her own crisis right then.

Azurite saluted and quickly left to take Blues orders back to the facet eleven manager. Blue pulled up her screen and began typing out a court summons for Zircon 4xC.

Across the room Pink let out a long sigh. “Hey Blue, do you ever want… do you ever wish you could just… be friends with other gems without them being...?” She struggled to ask. “Like, do you ever get lonely?”

Blue briefly glanced at the other Diamond before turning her attention back to her document. “Not that I can remember,” Blue answered noncommittally.

Pinks shoulders fell and she looked out the window again before continuing, “It’s just, last night at Whites court party, everyone I tried to talk to just wanted to… brag, and impress me. I couldn’t actually just talk to anyone.” Pink explained.

“Well of course they did, you’re a Diamond, Pink, every gem wants you to think they’re the best, it’s only natural.” Blue said.

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a Diamond,” Pink admitted, so quiet Blue almost didn’t hear it.

Blue finally turned to look at her. “Pink please, don’t be ridiculous. Now I need to deal with this fight that broke out between quartzes in facet eleven so can we talk about this  _ later _ ?” Blue asked impatiently.

Pink rolled her eyes but went silent. She never did bring it up again, and Blue had more important matters to attend to then to ask.

Steven was lacking his usual enthusiasm during his visit with Blue, he was excited to see the Apatites Spire and he lit up with wonder when they showed him the Star Projector map, but in quiet moments Blue noticed the way he seemed deep in thought, the lack of bounce in his step.

“Is something the matter, Steven?” Blue asked as they stepped off the warp pad into the Blue sector on their way to a meeting about putting together Stevens court. “Are you hungry? Tired?”

“No, no, I’m okay,” He assured her. “It’s not that.”

Blues eyebrows creased in concern, she stopped and knelt, putting her hand down for him to sit on so they could be more eye-to-eye. “Then what is it?” She asked.

Steven rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Well, Connie goes back to school in a few weeks and… she’s going into grade nine, that’s like, high school.”

Blue Diamond nodded encouragingly as if she understood what any of that meant.

“And I just… in the movies and tv and stuff, high school is like, a big deal, and you make lots of friends and get lots of homework and there’s parties and I guess… I guess I’m scared she’s going to be too busy to hang out any more, and maybe she’ll… she’ll make new friends that she likes better than me,” He trailed off sadly, looking at the ground far below.

“I mean, I want her to make friends!” Steven explained quickly. “Because she’s amazing and she deserves it and I know that just because she likes other people doesn’t mean she won't like me, but… but they’ll be more like her, more… more normal.”

“Steven,” Blue said gently, using a finger to tilt his chin up to meet her eyes. “There is nothing wrong with being you, you’re so much better then ‘normal,” Blue said sincerely. “I see how Connie and you are together, she adores you as much as you do her, you have nothing to worry about.”

Steven blushed and quickly hurried on. “I wish we could do something special before the summer is over,” he said. “Hang out more before she gets busy.”

Blue thought for a moment. “What if you brought her here for a couple of days? You could show her the Kyanite halls, and I have a feeling she would enjoy the Turquoise factories, and-”

“Really?!” Steven exclaimed. “Oh my gosh, I have to go ask her!”

Before Blue could lower her hand to let him off he was jumping over the side and floating softly to the ground, taking off in a run towards Blues quarters where he could use the communicator to contact her.

_ So much for the meeting _ , Blue thought, but she was glad to see Steven was feeling better.

* * *

 

Yellow could see Pink had come a long way since she had gotten her colony, but she also knew that Pink could do better if she just put in more effort.

“The Prime Kindergarten is set to begin injecting in two Earth rotations!” Pink said over the Diamond line, obviously very proud and excited of her accomplishment so far.

Yellow pursed her lips. “And how is the construction of the Sky Arena coming?” She asked.

Pinks expression fell. Yellow had heard from the Agates that the Sky Arena was nowhere near finished, despite having supposed to be done two decades ago.

“It’s, um, in progress,” Pink said haltingly.

“Mhm,” Yellow nodded, unimpressed. “You need to demand more from your gems Pink, or no one will respect your leadership. It’s unacceptable that completion of the Sky Arena is so long overdue, you need to make that known.”

Pinks expression hardened. “I don’t want to give anyone any trouble, I know the Bismuth's are working hard, they just need more time-”

“You’re too soft. Do I need to send a squad of Agates to get everyone in shape?” Yellow asked.

“No!” Pink protested. “I can do this, Yellow, would you just let me try it my way, for once?”

Yellow rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. “Fine, do it your way, don’t come complaining to me when your gems won’t listen to you.”

Pink sneered. “Fine. Goodbye.”

The communicator screen collapsed, and Yellow took a deep breath to calm herself.

She knew Pink could do so much better.

Yellow had never known Steven to be shy, nor did he appear to have any fear in front of crowds - she had watched him and Connie perform at Beachapalooza that year without so much as a shiver of anxiety from him.

Yet, as he stood off to the side of the hallway, Pearl fussing over the clasp of the cape around his shoulders, he looked like he was going to be ill.

“You look so handsome,” Yellow heard the Pearl mutter, touching Stevens cheek lovingly. “You’re going to do great.”

“Duh, you’ve got this, dude,” Amethyst said, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed casually.

Garnet ruffled his hair, grinning.

Steven gulped as the stage Labradorite called, “It’s time, Blue.”

Blue pulled up the hood of her cloak, casting her face into shadow, and entered the stage to what Yellow knew was a crowd of gems saluting in revered silence.

“Yellow,” The Labradorite ushered.

Yellow straightened her shoulders and stepped into the bright lights illuminating the stage. The crowd of multicolored gems from all courts stretched out across the arena, dutifully saluting without a single noise, their eyes trained on Yellow as she walked across the stage and stood to Blues right side.

Across the stage one more figure emerged, Steven, smiling weakly at the crowd as he took his place in between Blue and Yellow, barely reaching their ankles.

After short speeches from the other Diamonds, it was Stevens turn to introduce himself, formally, to the gems of Homeworld. 

He stepped up to the microphone provided for his use, as his voice would not carry across the space as the other Diamonds did, and swallowed again.

“H-hello, everyone,” He started, his voice cracking and higher in pitch than usual. He took a deep breath, and when he spoke again he sounded more himself. “I’m Steven Universe, half-human half-gem, half-Diamond actually.” 

He went through the speech he had prepared, and by the end was speaking to the crowd as naturally as he had the small human one in Beach City; and the gems were obviously awed by the nature of this new leader, his easy smile and the light-hearted jokes, his honesty and compassion that shone through in his promises to them.

As the speech ended he seemed unsure of what to do, as the crowd simply stared. Yellow remembered the crowd at the talent show had clapped, was he expecting applause? There was no applause at Diamond appearances-

At least, not until, down in the front row Garnet began clapping, quickly followed by the rest of Stevens group, and in no time at all the rest of the arena was as well, getting to their feet to clap and cheer.

Stevens face relaxed into a grin.

Back behind the stage Yellow scooped Steven up and placed him on her shoulder.

“How did I do?” He asked anxiously.

Yellow thought of the way his voice faltered or when he spoke too fast, how he fidgeted with the edge of his cape, his choice of certain words that she never would have advised he use.

“You did wonderfully,” She said.

Down below the Crystal Gems burst into the small room and Steven jumped down to greet them.

Yellow thought he was going to make a pretty great leader.

* * *

 

Steven finished repacking his overnight bag to take home, and pulled the cheeseburger backpack onto his shoulders.

Yellow and Blue stood in the doorway, falling into step beside him as he passed on his way out.

“So we can expect to see you at my party next week?” Blue asked.

“You wouldn’t be missing much,” Yellow said in a staged-whisper. Blue shot her an annoyed look.

Steven laughed. “Yeah, Amethyst said she’d come too, she wants to hang out with the fam.”

Blue sighed. “Of course, a bunch of rowdy Amethysts interrupting my courts peaceful event.”

They reached the warp pad and Steven hopped on, turning to face the Diamonds he smiled. “Bye, love you!”

He caught his breath when he noticed Blue and Yellows expressions, startled, slightly confused. He hadn’t meant to say it, had never said it before, but it was true, in the two years he had known them the Diamonds had become family to him.

And then he seen the way their expressions shifted from shock to touched, and he wondered,  _ had mom ever told them  _ she  _ loved them _ ?

He had known from the beginning of their relationship that Pink had never felt loved by the other Diamonds, that she believed they didn’t care, but was it possible it had gone both ways?

“We love you too, Steven,” Blue said, hands clasped in front of her chest, Yellow nodded.

Steven grinned, relieved, and let the light of the warp pad take him home.


End file.
